We probe nuclear multipole resonances in the framework of the random-phase approximation by using the interaction obtained from the chiral effective field theory. The three-nucleon force is included in a form of the in-medium two-nucleon interaction which was derived from the chiral three-nucleon force. The isoscalar monopole, isoscalar dipole, isovector dipole and isoscalar quadrupole resonances of the closed-shell $^{56,68,78}$Ni have been investigated. The calculations reasonably reproduce the experimental multipole resonances of $^{56,68}$Ni, and well describe the pygmy dipole resonance and dipole polarizability measured in $^{68}$Ni. The multipole resonances of $^{78}$Ni, including pygmy dipole resonance and dipole polarizability, are predicted. The detailed effects of the tensor force and three-body force are analyzed by dissecting the chiral interaction. We find that in general the tensor force effect on electric giant resonances is not as significant as the effect from the three-body force, although the tensor force provides more than half of the binding energy. The effect from three-body force is strong in light nuclei. Particularly, three-body force is crucial for the formation of the pygmy resonance in calculations.
Nuclear cross sections are basic inputs to any nuclear computation. Campaigns of experiments are fitted with the parametric R-matrix model of quantum nuclear interactions, and the resulting cross sections are documented - both point-wise and as resonance parameters (with uncertainties) - in standard evaluated nuclear data libraries (ENDF, JEFF, BROND, JENDL, CENDL, TENDL): these constitute our common knowledge of fundamental nuclear physics. In the past decade, a collaborative effort has been deployed to establish a new nuclear cross section library format - the Windowed Multipole Library - wi…
We study the conditions under which the nucleons inside a deformed nucleus can undergo chaotic motion. To do this we perform self-consistent calculations in semiclassical approximation utilizing a multipole-multipole interaction of the Bohr-Mottelson type for quadrupole and octupole deformations. For the case of harmonic and non-harmonic static potentials, we find that both multipole deformations lead to regular motion of the collective coordinate, the multipole moment of deformation. However, despite this regular collective motion, we observe chaotic single particle dynamics.
We extend our recent non-perturbative chiral SU(3) coupled channel approach to pion- and photon-induced $η$- and $K$-meson production off protons by including all strong and electromagnetic p-wave multipoles. We identify the p-wave amplitudes of the next-to-leading order SU(3) chiral meson-baryon Lagrangian with a coupled channel potential which is iterated to infinite orders in a separable Lippmann-Schwinger equation. Our approach to $η$- and $K$-photoproduction introduces no additional free parameters. By adjusting a few finite range parameters and the unknown parameters in the Lagrangian, w…
We study nuclear multipole resonances in the framework of the random phase approximation using the chiral potential NNLO$_{\text{sat}}$. This potential includes two- and three-body terms that has been simultaneously optimized to low-energy nucleon-nucleon scattering data and selected nuclear structure data. Our main foci have been the isoscalar monopole, isovector dipole, and isoscalar quadrupole resonances of the closed-shell nuclei, $^4$He, $^{16,22,24}$O, and $^{40,48}$Ca. These resonance modes have been widely observed in experiment. In addition, we use a renormalized chiral potential $V_{…
It is shown that the nuclear Hamiltonian can be separated rigorously as ${\cal H}={\cal H}_m+{\cal H}_M.$ For sufficiently smooth forces the monopole part ${\cal H}_m $is entirely responsible for Hartree-Fock selfconsistency and hence saturation properties. The multipole part ${\cal H}_M$ contains the ``residual'' terms - pairing, quadrupole, etc. - that will be analyzed in a companion paper. We include a review of the basic results often needed when working with multipole decompositions and average monopole properties.
Background: To access selected excited states of nuclei, within the framework of nuclear density functional theory, the quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA) is commonly used. Purpose: We present a computationally efficient, fully self-consistent framework to compute the QRPA transition strength function of an arbitrary multipole operator in axially-deformed superfluid nuclei. Methods: The method is based on the finite amplitude method (FAM) QRPA, allowing fast iterative solution of QRPA equations. A numerical implementation of the FAM-QRPA solver module has been carried out for defo…
Near threshold neutral pion electroproduction on the deuteron is studied in the framework of baryon chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion. We develop the multipole decomposition for pion production off spin-1 particles appropriate for the threshold region. The existing data at photon virtuality k^2 = -0.1 GeV^2 can be described satisfactorily. Furthermore, the prediction for the S-wave multipole E_d at the photon point is in good agreement with the data.
We review how nuclear forces emerge from low-energy QCD via chiral effective field theory. The presentation is accessible to the non-specialist. At the same time, we also provide considerable detailed information (mostly in appendices) for the benefit of researchers who wish to start working in this field.
Covariant density functional theory and three-dimensional tilted axis cranking are used to investigate multiple chirality in nuclear rotation for the first time in a fully self-consistent and microscopic way. Two distinct sets of chiral solutions with negative and positive parities, respectively, are found in the nucleus 106Rh. The negative-parity solutions reproduce well the corresponding experimental spectrum as well as the B(M1)/B(E2) ratios of the transition strengths. This indicates that a predicted positive-parity chiral band should also exist. Therefore, it provides a further strong hin…
During the past two decades, chiral effective field theory has become a popular tool to derive nuclear forces from first principles. Two-nucleon interactions have been worked out up to sixth order of chiral perturbation theory and three-nucleon forces up to fifth order. Applications of some of these forces have been conducted in nuclear few- and many-body systems---with a certain degree of success. But in spite of these achievements, we are still faced with great challenges. Among them is the issue of a proper uncertainty quantification of predictions obtained when applying these forces in {\i…
The paradox on the previous interpretation for the nuclear chiral geometry based on the effective angle has been clarified by reexamining the system with the particle-hole configuration $π(1h_{11/2})^1 \otimes ν(1h_{11/2})^{-1}$ and rotor with deformation parameter $γ=30^\circ$. It is found that the paradox is caused by the fact that the angular momentum of the rotor is much smaller than those of the proton and the neutron near the bandhead. Hence, it does not support a chiral rotation interpretation near the bandhead. The nuclear chiral geometry based on the effective angle makes sense only w…
We present a projector formalism which allows to define dynamical polarizabilities of the nucleon from a multipole expansion of the nucleon Compton amplitudes. We give predictions for the energy dependence of these dynamical polarizabilities both from dispersion theory and from leading-one-loop chiral effective field theory. Based on the good agreement between the two theoretical frameworks, we conclude that the energy dependence of the dynamical polarizabilities is dominated by chiral dynamics, except in those multipole channels where the first nucleon resonance Delta(1232) can be excited. Bo…
We discuss the nuclear anapole moment, a new P odd, T even electromagnetic multipole. Its discovery in the cesium experiment gives a first-rate information on parity-nonconserving nuclear forces. New prospects in the field are considered. Upper limits on the electric dipole moments, which are P odd, T odd multipoles, of elementary particles and atoms are presented, and their physical implications discussed. The atomic experiments are demonstrated to be as informative in this respect as the neutron ones. Tremendous progress in the field can be expected from experiments at ion storage rings and …
We investigate neutral pion electroproduction off protons in the framework of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The chiral expansion of the S--wave multipoles $E_{0+}$ and $L_{0+}$ is carried out to three orders. There appear several undetermined low--energy constants. Three are taken from a recent study of the new TAPS threshold $π^0$ photoproduction data, one is fixed from the proton Dirac form factor and the novel S--wave constants appearing at orders $q^4$ and $q^5$ are determined from a best fit (constrained by resonance exchange) to the recent NIKHEF and MAMI data at photon moment…
We present an efficient method for calculating strength functions using the finite amplitude method (FAM) for deformed superfluid heavy nuclei within the framework of the nuclear density functional theory. We demonstrate that FAM reproduces strength functions obtained with the fully self-consistent quasi-particle random-phase approximation (QRPA) at a fraction of computational cost. As a demonstration, we compute the isoscalar and isovector monopole strength for strongly deformed configurations in $^{240}$Pu by considering huge quasi-particle QRPA spaces. Our approach to FAM, based on Broyden'…
Electroproduction of pions on the nucleon near the threshold is analyzed within the framework of baryon chiral perturbation theory. We give a thorough discussion of the low--energy theorems related to charged and neutral electropionproduction. It is shown how the axial radius of the nucleon can be related to the S--wave multipoles $E_{0+}^{(-)}$ and $L_{0+}^{(-)}$. The chiral perturbation theory calculations of the $γ^\star p \to π^0 p$ reaction are found to be in good agreement with the recent near threshold data. We also discuss the influence of some isospin--breaking effects in this channel…
We investigate the quantum interference between the resonant process of nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) followed by the radiative decay of the excited nucleus, and radiative recombination (RR). In order to derive the interference cross section, a Feshbach projection operator formalism is used. The electromagnetic field is considered by means of multipole fields. The nucleus is described by a phenomenological collective model and by making use of experimental data. The Fano profile parameters as well as the interference cross section for electric and magnetic multipole transitions…
In-medium subthreshold KbarN scattering amplitudes calculated within a chirally motivated meson-baryon coupled-channel model are used self consistently to confront K^- atom data across the periodic table. Substantially deeper K^- nuclear potentials are obtained compared to the shallow potentials derived in some approaches from threshold amplitudes, with Re V_{chiral} = -(85+/-5) MeV at nuclear matter density. When KbarNN contributions are incorporated phenomenologically, a very deep K^- nuclear potential results, Re V_{chiral+phen.} = -(180+/-5) MeV, in agreement with density dependent potenti…
We shed light upon the eta' mass in nuclear matter in the context of partial restoration of chiral symmetry, pointing out that the U_{A}(1) anomaly effects causes the eta'-eta mass difference necessarily through the chiral symmetry breaking. As a consequence, it is expected that the eta' mass is reduced by order of 100 MeV in nuclear matter where partial restoration of chiral symmetry takes place. The discussion given here is based on Ref. [1].
Spontaneously broken chiral symmetry is an established property of low-energy quantum chromodynamics, but finding direct evidence for it from nuclear structure data is a difficult challenge. Indeed, phenomenologically successful energy-density functional approaches do not even have explicit pions. Are there smoking guns for chiral symmetry in nuclei?
We review a new generation of nuclear forces derived in chiral effective field theory using the recently proposed semilocal regularization method. We outline the conceptual foundations of nuclear chiral effective field theory, discuss all steps needed to compute nuclear observables starting from the effective chiral Lagrangian and consider selected applications in the two- and few-nucleon sectors. We highlight key challenges in developing high-precision tree-body forces, such as the need to maintain consistency between two- and many-body interactions and constraints placed by the chiral and ga…
Chiral effective field theory has established itself as the method of choice to study nuclear forces and low-energy nuclear dynamics. I review the status and prospects of this approach and discuss ongoing efforts to advance the precision frontier for ab initio description of few-nucleon systems. Special emphasis is put on the precise determination of the two-nucleon force at fifth order in the chiral expansion, role of the chiral symmetry, the convergence pattern of the chiral expansion and the quantification of the theoretical uncertainties. The discussed topics are essential for ongoing stud…
These are personal recollections of how Gerry Brown's work and thinking influenced the development of the chiral effective Lagrangian based theory of nuclear forces.
It is shown that an enhancement in the spectral function near 2$m_π$ threshold in the I=J=0 channel is a good signal of the partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear medium. Several experiments are discussed to detect the enhancement, which uses hadron-nucleus and photo-nucleus reactions.
A survey is given on selected topics concerning the role of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in low-energy QCD, and its dynamical implications for nuclear systems. This includes aspects of chiral thermodynamics (the temperature and density dependence of the chiral condensate). It also includes an update on the theory of low-energy (s-wave) pion-nuclear interactions relevant for deeply-bound states of pionic atoms and the quest for possible fingerprints of chiral symmetry restoration in nuclear systems.
The history of how chiral symmetry has entered in nuclear physics, in which Gerry Brown and I have participated from 1970 up to today, is described from my personal viewpoint. The route of development we have traversed together goes from meson exchange currents, to "little chiral bag," to chiral effective field theory, to "Brown-Rho scaling" and then to dense matter and chiral phase transition. It has been a great fun and exciting, some right and some wrong in what we have done together, but none that can be dismissed as "not even wrong." We have found all along that whatever signal there may …
In these proceedings, we discuss the current status of nuclear bound state predictions based on chiral nuclear interactions. Results of ordinary $s$- and $p$-shell nuclei and light hypernuclei are shown.
We propose measuring the mass shift and width broadening of the $f_1(1285)$ meson together with those of the $ω$ from a nuclear target as a means to experimentally probe the partial restoration of chiral symmetry inside the nuclear matter. The relation between the order parameter of chiral symmetry and the difference in the correlation functions of the $f_1(1285)$ current and the $ω$ current is discussed in the limit where the disconnected diagrams are neglected. A QCD sum rule analysis of the $f_1(1285)$ meson mass leads to about 100 MeV attraction in nuclear matter, which can be probed in fu…
We investigate nuclear matter, i.e. the nuclear equation-of-state (EOS) as well as the relativistic mean fields in the chiral limit. The investigations are based on a chiral nucleon-nucleon EFT interaction where the explicit and implicit pion mass dependence is known up to next-to-leading order. The nuclear bulk properties are found to remain fairly stable in the chiral limit. Based on the same interaction the in-medium scalar condensate is derived, both in Hartree-Fock approximation as well as from the Brueckner G-matrix, making thereby use of the Hellman-Feynman theorem. Short distance physi…
The introduction of chiral effective field theory by Steven Weinberg three decades ago has had a profound and lasting impact on nuclear physics. This brief review explores the impact of Weinberg's work on the field of nuclear lattice simulations. Rather than a summary of technical details, an effort is made to present the conceptual advances that made much of the recent progress possible.
In spite of the great progress we have seen in recent years in the derivation of nuclear forces from chiral effective field theory (EFT), some important issues are still unresolved. In this contribution, we discuss the open problems which have particular relevance for microscopic nuclear structure, namely, the proper renormalization of chiral nuclear potentials and sub-leading many-body forces.
We present a relativistic chiral theory of nuclear matter which includes the effect of confinement. Nuclear binding is obtained with a chiral invariant scalar background field associated with the radial fluctuations of the chiral condensate Nuclear matter stability is ensured once the scalar response of the nucleon depending on the quark confinement mechanism is properly incorporated. All the parameters are fixed or constrained by hadron phenomenology and lattice data. A good description of nuclear saturation is reached, which includes the effect of in-medium pion loops. Asymmetry properties o…
Realistic nuclear potentials, derived within chiral perturbation theory, are a major breakthrough in modern nuclear structure theory, since they provide a direct link between nuclear physics and its underlying theory, namely the QCD. As a matter of fact, chiral potentials are tailored on the low-energy regime of nuclear structure physics, and chiral perturbation theory provides on the same footing two-nucleon forces as well as many-body ones. This feature fits well with modern advances in ab-initio methods and realistic shell-model. Here, we will review recent nuclear structure calculations, b…
We review the main achievements of the research programme for the study of nuclear forces in the framework of chiral symmetry and discuss some problems which are still open.
The present note summarizes the discourse on power counting issues of chiral nuclear forces, with an emphasis on renormalization-group invariance. Given its introductory nature, I will lean toward narrating a coherent point of view on the concepts, rather than covering comprehensively the development of chiral nuclear forces in different approaches.
Two recent experiments have demonstrated that the effective $ρ$-mass in nuclear medium, as extracted from the $^3He(γ, π^+ π^-)$ reaction, is substantially reduced. This has been advocated as an indication of partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear matter. We show that even in the absence of chiral symmetry, effective mean field nuclear matter models can explain these findings quantitatively.
We present a new chiral power expansion scheme for the nuclear equation of state. The scheme is effective in the sense that it is constructed to work around nuclear saturation density. The leading and subleading terms are evaluated and are shown to provide an excellent equation of state. As a further application we considered the chiral quark condensate in nuclear matter. Already at nuclear saturation density we predict a substantially smaller reduction of the condensate as compared to conventional approaches.
We substantiate our statement that the deuteron remains bound in the chiral limit. We critically discuss recent claims that effective field theory cannot give a definite answer to this question.
It is shown that the rotating mean field of triaxial nuclei can break the chiral symmetry. Two nearly degenerate $ΔI =1 $ rotational bands originate from the left-handed and right-handed solution.
Within the relativistic Hartree approach using a Lagrangian with density-dependent parameters respecting the chiral limit, it is found that the vacuum corrections from the nucleon Dirac sea soften the equation of state and favor the chiral symmetry restoration at high densities.
We discuss partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear medium, which is realized as an effective reduction of the quark condensate in nuclear medium. We derive the in-medium Weinberg-Tomozawa relation. We also give a brief calculation of the in-medium quark condensate based on chiral perturbation theory. We conclude that the density dependence of the quark condensate beyond the linear density comes from the vertex correction of the chiral field insertion and nucleon correlations.
Semi-leptonic electroweak interactions in nuclei - such as βdecay, μcapture, charged- and neutral-current neutrino reactions, and electron scattering - are described by a set of multipole operators carrying definite parity and angular momentum, obtained by projection from the underlying nuclear charge and three-current operators. If these nuclear operators are approximated by their one-body forms and expanded in the nucleon velocity through order |\vec{p}|/M, where \vec{p} and M are the nucleon momentum and mass, a set of seven multipole operators is obtained. Nuclear structure calculations ar…
After giving brief discussions on the chiral condensate in hot and/or dense hadronic matter and the significance of the $σ$ meson in QCD, we discuss the importance of experiments using nuclear targets including ones with electro-magnetic probes for obtaining clearer confirmation of the existence of the $σ$ meson and for exploring the possible restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear medium.
This paper is a write-up of introductory lectures on the modern approach to the nuclear force problem based on chiral effective field theory given at the 2009 Joliot-Curie School, Lacanau, France, 27 September - 3 October 2009.
We study a chiral relativistic theory of nuclear matter aimed at the desciption of both the binding and saturation properties and the QCD properties, quark condensate and QCD susceptibilities. For this purpose the nucleon scalar response of the quark-meson coupling model is introduced in the linear sigma model. The consequences for the nuclear and the QCD scalar susceptibilities are discussed.
The role of chiral symmetry in nuclear physics is summarized. The topics treated are the chiral bag model for nucleon structure resulting from large $N_c$ QCD, the pion cloud in chiral perturbation theory for low-energy electroweak nuclear response functions, ``swelled hadrons" in nuclear matter, chiral symmetry restoration in terms of the Georgi vector limit and pseudo-Goldstone meson condensation in nuclear medium.
The constraints imposed by chiral symmetry on hadron correlation functions in nuclear medium are discussed. It is shown that these constraints imply a certain structure for the in-medium hadron correlators and lead to the cancelation of the order $ρm_π$ term in the in-medium nucleon correlator. We also consider the effect of mixing of the chiral partners correlation functions arising from the interaction of nuclear pions with corresponding interpolating currents. It reflects the phenomena of partial restoration of chiral symmetry. The different scenarios of such restoration are briefly discuss…
We discuss the relevance of the scalar modes appearing in chiral theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking such as the NJL model for nuclear matter studies. We show that it depends on the relative role of chiral symmetry breaking and confinement in the nucleon mass origin. It is only in the case of a mixed origin that nuclear matter can be stable and reach saturation. We describe models of nucleon structure where this balance is achieved. We show how chiral constarints and confinement modify the QCD sum rules for the mass evolution in nuclear matter.
Nuclear matter calculations based on low-momentum interactions derived from chiral nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon effective field theory interactions and fit only to few-body data predict realistic saturation properties with controlled uncertainties. This is promising for a unified description of nuclei and to develop a universal density functional based on low-momentum interactions.
